In the conventional art, color filters are produced by incorporating a pigment-dispersed composition in which an organic pigment or an inorganic pigment is dispersed, a polyfunctional monomer, a polymerization initiator, an alkali soluble resin, and other optional components to give a colored composition, and forming a colored pattern by a photolithography method, an ink jet method, or the like using the colored composition.
In recent years, there has been a trend in which the use of color filters for liquid crystal display devices (LCDs) has been expanding from monitors to televisions (TVs). Along with this trend of expanding use, the color filters have come to be required to have a high degree of color characteristics in terms of chromaticity, contrast, and the like. Similarly, color filters for image sensors (solid-state imaging devices) have also come to be required to have further improved color characteristics such as reduced color unevenness and improved color resolution.
However, in conventional color filters prepared using a pigment dispersion system, problems such as occurrence of scattering due to coarse pigment particles and an increase in viscosity caused by poor dispersion stability tend to occur, and it is difficult to further improve the contrast and the luminance in many cases.
Therefore, use of a dye as well as a pigment as a colorant has thus far been studied (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. H06-75375). It is thought that a dye is useful because, when a dye is used as a colorant, the hue and the luminance of a display image can be improved due to the color purity of the dye itself and the vivid hue thereof, and the contrast can be improved due to a lack of coarse particles.
As an example of the dye, compounds having a variety of colorant main structures are known, such as a dipyrromethene-based dye, a pyrimidine azo-based dye, a pyrazole azo-based dye, and a xanthene-based dye (see, for example, JP-A Nos. 2008-292970 and 2007-039478, and Japanese Patent No. 3387541).